Kitchen Crazy

Due to the insanity in my dining room, I am unable to find the battery charger for the camera, therefore unable to take any pretty pictures for you. I was however, able to catch a glimpse, for you, of how we are living before the camera died. I am pretty ready to have our new pretty kitchen, and to not live like this anymore. Our only source of water is upstairs. We have been doing our dishes in the bathtub now for 2 1/2 weeks. I am so not complaining because I know when it is all said and done it will be totally worth it. I can't wait!

I will be busy in the basement preparing for the Shaw show coming up at the beginning of October. I have some brand spanking new ideas for a new line. That is what I am going to work on this week. I have a few more custom orders to fill before I can start the creativity though.

It feels like fall is in full force here in St. Louis. It came a lot earlier than normal this year, and I could not be happier. I am thrilled about having our new kitchen, using our new fireplace and cozying up with some hot drinks. Maybe some hot chocolate or an Irish Tea. I can't wait! Steve is out of town for the next week working. It is just me and the dogs in our little bitty space we have left to live.

Have you ever heard of this company? I have recently become obsessed with them. The lighting in their photography, and the style of the sets they photograph on, not to mention the super fabulous clothes and home goods they sell. I am a woman obsessed. This is what I do. I find something I love, and I want to change everything in my house and wardrobe to look like that. Yes, this would be quite expensive if I actually followed through. But it is fun to dream about having those worn wooden floors, and woven cozy throws for my non existent beautifully upholstered early 1900's couch. So dreamy.

Oh! and Red is doing his home visit on Friday to his potential new and fabulous home. The young lady who is interested in Red is soooo sweet and will make a fabulous home for him. Red is still such a puppy and really needed someone young and ready to put the energy into that he will need. She adopting him depends on whether he is a good buddy to her brother's dog. Let's all hope, because I can just feel that this is the perfect home for Red. I was thinking about taking a break after Red, but I think I am going to foster all the way in to December and then take a break. My very patient husband says that is ok. We do need a little down time though. It is such a hard thing to stop, once you start fostering. I hope everyone had a great week, and if you are in St. Louis or any of the other towns that received terrible weather recently, you are recovering and getting things back together. There was a lot of flooding here in St. Louis, in places that do not normally flood. There were people floating in boats in the middle of Manchester (which is a major road in St. Louis). I cannot imagine losing everything. My thoughts are with those who have experienced this devastation.

Uh, Yello?

That's how my dad used to answer the phone. I think I may do that sometimes too.

I am in the process of updating the look of my booth in my head. This is what it currently looks like. Most of the jewelry is kept in the cases, requiring the customer to ask to see a piece, and me to be available to give it to them. Not that I am that knock down, drag out busy at the shows, but I have been told at times that my booth was too busy to get to. That's a good thing right? Well I have been thinking that maybe it is not necessarily that I am too busy, but that my setup is inconvenient. My new idea is to eliminate the cases and display everything in open air for people to feel free to touch, try on and fall in love with. Basically, what this comes down to is that I have an idea in my head for some fabric that I want to make a T-shaped table cloth out of. That is all it is, an idea. I do not even know if I have ever seen this fabric before besides in my own head. As I picture it, it is yellow knit, or woven cotton, rather thick and textury, with a raised design of victorian type swirls and flowers and prettiness. Got it? Any one understand what I am talking about? Can anyone tell me where I can get something like this? It is one of those things, that I have in my head, and if I have to settle for something less, my booth will not be what I have pictured in all of its glory. I don't know, I think I might be obsessed with yellow as of late. What do you think?


Those are not the real mantel decorations.

Yellow is the accent color in our wedding. Yellow and brown. I told Steve those were the colors I dreamt up, and he promptly replied, "oh good, poop and pee." I think I pooped and peed my pants laughing. He is funny like that at least once a day. All of those yellow vases are for our center pieces. And that little hippo, I actually own, but he may be lucky enough to attend the wedding. And what do you ask are those cute little paintings above the vases?


Those are paintings Steve and I collaborated on. If we ever get it together, we are going to do a series with those two as our characters, involving our experiences with rescuing dogs and life in general. Alrighty, off to bed. Sweet dreams!

Glutton for Punishment

Since we are planning a wedding, art show season is approaching, and I am busier than ever with the animals, I thought we should go ahead and start to rehab the kitchen, upstairs bathroom, install a new half bath in the pantry, get new windows, etc. I am glutton for punishment. But, I am super excited about having the house be new and clean and wonderful. We are knocking out the wall between the dining room and the kitchen and putting a sit up breakfast bar there. When I say we, I mean my Uncle Keith. But, we are going to tile the breakfast bar with Talavera Mexican tiles. Above you will find the two I have narrowed it down to. I have been photoshopping tiles together for the last couple of hours in smaller scale to see what it will really look like. What do you think? Should I keep searching? Are these too bright? I love the look, but I am a little worried that when we go to sell the house, it will be too much. We are doing a Tuscan themed kitchen. I know, you are saying, then why are you putting Mexican tiles? My answer is, "I saw it on HGTV." Aren't they pretty.



I have been taking a lost wax casting class for the past 6 weeks. I signed up for one, forgot about it and still had to pay for it. Then I signed up for another one and loved it so much that I am now taking my actual second, technically third lost wax casting class. Above are a few of the pieces I have made so far. And, Amy, if you can find me a plastic donkey, by all means, I will make a donkey necklace too.

Make Lemonade

I got to make a piece of jewelry for fun and for creativity yesterday! I have not been able to do that since before the Chicago show. I have a lot of new ideas, so stay posted. Unless I happen to get all kinds of custom orders, I will be cranking out some new stuff. I have also been busy turning the spare bedroom into a dressing room for myself. I figured out my motivation for getting in shape: a full length mirror. Yikes! I need to fit into that beautiful dress I bought off of ebay for my wedding. I saw a picture of a dress online...of course it was one of those high end designery dresses. I could not afford it. So, I checked ebay every day for six months straight. And there it was one day. A used Lazaro in the exact style, very close to my size. In short, I never tried on a dress for my wedding. I got the dress I wanted for a third of the price and it fit like a glove! A very tight glove. I must do weekly checks before the wedding to be certain that I can still slide into it. Hence the full length mirror. It is my motivation.

An Inspirational Day

First, this sunset from our front porch. Technically we do not own that tree. But, I do tend to call it my tree. Except, in the presence of our awesome neighbors, Anne & Darren, I correct myself, "I mean your tree". It is on their side. But I can see it from my window. I suppose there are a lot of things I can see from my window that I do not own.

And then this fabulous movie. If you have not seen it, I highly suggest going out and renting it. Steve and I were just talking about where we are going to go for our honeymoon. And, I think if we can afford it we are going to go to Ireland. Stay in an old castle or something. That sounds like more our speed than a sunny, beachy vacation.

I hope everyone has a superb new year's eve and new year's day. I am off to download the soundtrack to that movie!

Oh! And my website shop is finally up. If you have signed up for my newsletter, I will be sending the first one out shortly to notify the launch.

Obssestica with Ornaments-ica

I am obsessed with this little Strawberry Shortcake dish set too. I bought it for my niece for Christmas this year, but she is not even two and I have decided to wait until next year to give it to her. She is just such a genious, I forget that she is so young. No, really she's a genius, and I'm not just saying that because I am her doting aunt. She is also adorbale.

Floyd is obsessed with it too. He wants to keep it and drink his water out of the head bowl, and eat his food off of the feet plate.
Steve and I have started a new tradition for Christmas. I stole the idea from my friend Carroll. We are going to purchase or make (preferably make) a special ornament that represents our year together. This year I bought this ornament from Anthropologie, which I have been trying to stay out of lately, because I go way too crazy. It is a house because, duh, we moved in together this year. Notice the creepy cello player to the left. It cracks me up. But, next year we will make the ornament. I am sure that Steve is thrilled.

These are a few of my other favorite onrnaments on the tree.

I got this scary snowman from my grandma. I noticed that it's nose is falling off while I was taking the picture, so I will glue that back on before the season is over.

This beauty is from my Grandma too. I bet she made it.
Last year, my friend Autumn Foster who lives in Portland sent Steve and I this ornament. Isn't it sweet?

If you have a tradition, or something that makes this time of year special for you, please post in the comment box. I love hearing that kind of stuff, so I can borrow fun ideas.

It snowed this weekend, a bunch! We sat in the house all day on Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately Steve left the camera at work, so I didn't get any pictures. He can do that because it is his camera. The dogs were cute with their snow covered coats and beards when they would come in from outside. Sorry, no pics, but here is a picture of Bad Bob today. He is a trip, reminds me a lot, character wise, of my old dog Bailey, whom I miss. Fortunately I have been able to compensate for my loss of Bailey two years ago with way too many dogs. That's how wonderful Bailey was. It will take a katrillion dogs to fill his personality. Now he is sitting on a shelf in a vintage brass urn watching over us. Yes, I am crazy, and you all know it for real now.

Oh, and the jewelry. This is a jewelry blog right? I have been busy filling orders and making Christmas presents. It has been fun. There is something gratifying about making something that you know is going to be a gift. Yesterday, I was supposed to make two necklaces for people for Christmas, but there is something more gratifying about working on pieces and ideas that have nothing to do with what I'm supposed to be accomplishing. And, I couldn't get this bicycle out of my head.
So, I cut it out of metal. I don't know if I am going to put it up for sale quite yet.

I leave you with bread pudding. Oh, and look, there's that cute ornament again.

Who doesn't love muffins?

Tomorrow we are going to Steve's parents house. They are such great people. I am so excited to be part of their family. Peggy always says not to bring anything, but I think I am going to make some muffins.

I will take some pictures of the muffins, just to prove that I am not making up that I am going to make muffins just to have a reason to post my muffin necklace. But, I am making muffins, just so I can post my necklace. I am excited about both. The muffin necklace and the muffins. This week I cranked on the jewelry. I will be posting them as they fit into my blog. It's like a puzzle for me trying to think of reasons to post my necklaces. It has to fit, right? This is a blog about jewelry, right?

I am in the process of putting together an online shop for my jewelry. Steve is really in the process, because he is my programmer. Isn't he wonderful! We have had such a great day sitting on the couch working on my website. I love jobs where I can sit on the couch. Not to mention the fact that we finally got ALL of my crap out of the top of the house. Boxes and everything. No more piles! Except the piles of artwork that I need to hang. I am starting to love this house. We are getting a fireplace too which I am super duper duper excited about. I fantasize about warm drinks and glasses of wine while the fireplace burns in the winter. Really, it doesn't take a fireplace for me to fantasize about wine though. This house is so cold all of the time that I think a fireplace will help with the gas bill. I hope. I will also be sending out a monthly newsletter after my site is launched. There will be a signup page on the new site.

My dogalicious the Floydy Doydy makes the best noises. One of these days I will post them online for ya'll to hear. He is such a gremlin.

Today a family came to meet Andy This photo was taken by a very talented artist named David Carlyon. He is so nice and volunteers his talents for the rescue. Isn't Andy just precious. It is so hillarious. This is the second time he has pulled the 'I am a boring dog who is totally disinterested in you people' card. He will be all playful and fun before the peeps come, and then he lays in the furthest corner he can and stares at them. I think he wants to stay. One of these days the right person will come along and Andy will have his person.

Dirty, Dirtiness

Today I was outside photographing this necklace. I have had this image of the necklace in my head for a week now. I created most of it and then ran out of material. I thought it was going to be so fabulous that it would be my banner display for my blog. I made it the display because I had my heart set on it, not because I love how it turned out. It definitely wears better than it photographs. Mostly I find the more excited I am about a piece, the less I like it. Anyway, I finished taking the pictures of this necklace. I call it "pretty little things for life". I was in a froo froo mood when I made it. I open the door to go outside and out shoots Andy onto the porch and out the dog gate that I so neglectfully forgot to shut. I have it up there for that very reason. Because I can't seem to keep the dogs in the first door. Apparently I can't keep them behind the second trap door either. As a rule of thumb, I've learned never to chase a dog, they think it's a game. I typically say the word "treat" very rambunctiously, squat at the top of the steps and call them. Voila! He came right up to me. As I swooped him up telling him what a good dog he is, I see this woman walking down the sidewalk about three houses down. She peeked around a tree and said "Amie?, are you Amie King." Or something like that. I can't really remember because I was so concerned with the fact that I hadn't showered for a day and a half (yikes!). See, I work out of my home and it is so easy to wakey wakey, drink the coffee, and go downstairs in the same thing I slept in and make jewelry. The woman, who I think told me her name, but again I can't remember it because I was so concerned that I might have a glob of mascara under my eye said that she was in that antique store Roots which I love so much and also down the street in another great antique store called Eclectica. She said that both of the women mentioned my name and my jewelry and so she was walking and thought that it might be me. Now, I am sure that the woman who owns Eclectica told her that I was building a retaining wall in my front yard and that is how she found me, but I feel horrible that I wasn't nicer and I hope that if she reads this blog at some point I can reintroduce myself. Hopefully I will be cleaner, and without dog in arms. And maybe at that point my house will be suitable to invite people in. I have had such a horrible time keeping this house in guest allowing order. With four dogs and the fact that I still haven't completely unpacked, it is impossible to keep it looking nice. Not that it ever did look nice.

That reminds me that I went to pick up mail from my old house on 59th st. this weekend. A lovely young couple bought it from me. I lived there for 6 years and it was my first house. I put a lot of love into that house and I really miss it. The new owners have completely redone the back yard and it looks fabulous! I got a tear in my eye. I can't wait until I can get this house into living, working, I love my hizzy order. In dedication to getting this house in order I have made a necklace that I call "Rule the Roost" implied, don't let it rule you, which my house is doing right now along with all of the dogs. Especially the one that just jumped on my computer while I was typing. The other day he did that and it broke my c key off. I couldn't copy and paste for a whole two days. Mac replaced it for free.